Market Farming

[Richard Moyer <ramoyer AT gmail.com>]

Kathryn,

Sorry for the delayed reply.  The only breeding flock we've established is the Bourbon Reds.  We're surrounded by broken woods, wild turkeys and therefore turkey hunters.  Bourbon Reds are unique in their coloration, very different than the native birds, and therefore less likely to be shot. Most other heritage breeds are too easily confused with wild birds.

I think in principle, you'd be able to select for the traits you want in a breeding flock with various heritage turkey breeds, ones that head for grass and bugs in the morning and throughout the day, instead of camping at the feed trough.  In farm visits, I've been struck by this:  though animal breeds are distinguished by their sets of traits, there are individuals within all breeds that may have that trait matching your farm needs, such as reducing inputs.  Case in point:  we visited a goat dairy, who was selecting for very long lactation goats, to avoid dry goats and breeding challenges.  Milk all year long to minimize the high then low/no volume swings of frequent kidding.  They had all the major breeds, and had selected very long lactation nannies from each of them, though some breeds were known for long lactation over others.

At our place, we're selecting for milk cows and goats that maintain the best body condition on our pasture and browse, weather, fescue, parasite load, etc.  Milk volume is a lower priority; we make and sell soap with goat milk.  We're not shy about crossing breeds to get the animals we want, and culling those that don't fit our goals.

A turkey hen can raise many more poults than she can hatch, so we hatch eggs from multiple hens with the traits we want, then give all babies to the best 2-3 mother hens.  So they can inherit certain traits from their natural mother (quick growth, disease resistance, etc).  Then learn other valuable traits from their adoptive mother, such as where and when to find foods on our farm, alertness to predators, returning to coop each night, etc.

But free-ranging turkeys still need help.  Watch the foods that turkeys forage, which bugs when, which seed plants and wild berries through the season.  Then encourage such behaviors, or at least minimize interference.  With the price of corn and soybeans, all the foraging they do is welcome.  Tune your hearing to the distinctive peeps of lost poults during such outings, especially during the first few critical weeks.  A guard dog trained to protect poultry helps, for various predators enjoy snacking on lost poults.

As for other 'employment'/layering with turkeys:  we make and sell pine cone 'turkeys' for thanksgiving place settings, with various sizes of pine cones festooned with real turkey feathers.  We also collect and sell individual turkey feathers, and entered a turkey feather wreath in the fair this year.  Have made turkey sausage from ones that weren't the best Thanksgiving or Christmas birds.  Also sell feet and extra giblets for certain cooks.  Have been told spurs and beards have markets, though we've not explored those.

We've yet to find a price point where we can't sell out of Heritage turkeys for the holidays.  Though we have cut back on our numbers this year, due to feed cost and demands of other projects.

Richard Moyer

SW VA

   
Message: 3
Date: Sat, 8 Sep 2012 23:00:15 -0400 (EDT)
From: KAKerby AT aol.com
Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Dealing with baby grasshoppers; long
To: market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org
Message-ID: <3014b.4ea9750f.3d7d603f AT aol.com">3014b.4ea9750f.3d7d603f AT aol.com>
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Richard, I'd be curious to know if Bourbon Reds happen to be the turkeys
you have, so that's what you use, versus you've tried other turkey breeds and
 they didn't work out as well.  We have Narragansets and I'd like to find
them "other" employment besides growing up to become Thanksgiving meals.
It would be nice if they worked for a living while eating, THEN their sale
would  be a bonus.  Love to double-layer things like that.
Kathryn Kerby
frogchorusfarm.com
Snohomish, WA
Ruminations - essays on the farming life at  frogchorusfarm.com/weblog.html


In a message dated 9/8/2012 3:59:17 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
ramoyer AT gmail.com writes:

Pam,
When we had two acres, we put out Nolo bait, by spreading bran infested
with the grasshopper parasite 'Nosema'.  Semaspore appears to be another
brand of same.


Worked very well, beginning the next year, for multiple years.  From  a
single treatment.  Am still impressed by the level of control.


Now with 70 acres, our flock of bourbon red turkeys are the best
grasshopper hunters of our various poultry.


When very young, we have hens who will take their poults each morning
(10-15 or so each) and patrol those areas with higher infestations. Some hens
can handle 20 or more, adopting from delinquent mothers.   We tend to  herd
them to those areas with the most grasshoppers.  Grasshoppers tend  to come
from grassy field (pasture, hayfield) edges into row crops, so one
management strategy is to keep grass strips of sufficient width very short  that
surround row crops, and allow taller grass farther away, which is  grasshopper
preferred habitat.  But if the only moist soil and tender  young plants is
your baby fall veggies, they can migrate over.  May make  sense then to
irrigate where you want them to stay, if rains are lacking.  Also, mowing, haying
and/or rotational grazing in the preferred  grasshopper habitat and poultry
feeding area keeps young foliage coming on,  hence attractive to multiple
critters in the farm ecosystem.


Not by design, but by sheer dumb luck our set up has the most turkeys
patrolling in the grassy strips and taller pasture/hayfield beside the row  crop
areas, separated by a good fence that keeps turkeys out of crops once  they
are juveniles.  We still need to train the turkeys to stay out of  crop
areas once older, which requires someone on the farm all the time, during  that
transition, someone with sharp ears and eyes.  (Yes, heritage  turkeys can
be trained, at least in our flock.)


When and how we feed commercial mix also needs to be timed to maximize
grasshopper feeding.  That is, train turkeys to forage before filling up  on
purchased feed.  We often feed just before they roost. Esp. as days  get
shorter and nights longer and cooler.


In our breeding program, my daughter selects for those hens who stay with
their poults the longest, and are the best teachers of foraging for
grasshoppers, green matter and grass seed.  This helps entrain positive  behaviors
and means if we steer the mothers in the right area, their young  follow.


Once the young leave their mothers, they become unruly teenagers with a
social order all their own.  (Stay out late, refuse to be seen with  parents,
have no regard for their messes, trash the best vehicles, play in the  road,
etc.)  But by this phase (closer to Thanksgiving), we've often had  a good
killing frost, the crops are more established, so the grasshoppers not  so
bad.


During critical points of grasshopper control, you could possibly import
some turkeys or other birds, to set grasshopper numbers back.  Helps to  have
their owner around, or a turkey whisperer onsite to know how to manage
flock behavior.


Peacocks also work well as insect hunters; but they are so light as
juveniles and adults they tend to fly over any fence, any time and can be a
problem with tomatoes.


Don't know how well guineas would work, but they also are very mobile.


In summary, Nosema bait if no poultry, possibly both, or just poultry if
you are trying to raise poultry food onsite.


Richard Moyer
SW VA
Where the rains mean fall crop germination and many stunted weeds now
going to  seed.